God's Favor…Your Fervor!
When's the last time you stopped and took a good look at
your life? Are things going about as well as you expected? Is your life as
joyous and enthusiastic as it was when you first asked Jesus to come into your
heart and create a new life within you?
If not, then in may be that you've lost your FERVOR for God
and thus, He is holding back His FAVOR!
Now, many theologians would probably debate me on this
issue, but let's take a closer examination and see what the Scriptures might have
to say on such an important matter. First, let me make sure that you understand
my premise…You can't be good enough to win God's favor (the outpouring of His
blessings on your life) any more than you can earn your salvation…God doesn't
play that game!
He does say, however, in Proverbs 12:2,"A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil
devices he condemns." And paraphrasing "good" or
"righteous" would allow us to use the word, FERVENT…which means
stretching or straining…as Paul says in Philippians 3:14, "I press (strain) for the goal for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus."
When we have lost our fervor for God, we have placed him in
the passenger seat of our life and we have taken over the controls. We no
longer strain to be the believer that He has called us to be and it shows in
all the areas of our lives. How can God be expected to open up the storehouse
of Heaven and shower us with His favor when we have not given Him the proper
place in our lives?
If we have lost our enthusiasm for spending time in His
Word; become complacent in our prayer life; lost our zeal for sharing the Good
News and no longer run after Him with ardent fervor in our hearts; why should
we expect our Creator to be more than casually concerned about us and our
desire to see an outpouring of His favor on us and our activities?
In Revelation 3:16, we read, "So, because you are
lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." What does that mean in context of the
favor of God?
Simply put… if
you are not fervently seeking the Lord in worship and in service for Him, He
can hardly be expected to release His favor on you…so if you are a born again
believer these days and are not seeing or experience the FAVOR of God in your
life, you might want to take your temperature…hot or cold or just lukewarm.
God is waiting
and willing to help you regain that fervor that has you straining for the goal
of becoming a "sold out" convert for Christ…commissioned and
battlefield ready to be all that God wants you to be in the war against our
foe…and when you are back in the trenches, you will see the FAVOR of God poured
out on you like never before. So, don't delay one more day, fervently seek the
face of God and see if He is not willing to shine down His abundant favor on
you.
Fervently
Following My Commander, Jesus Christ….
WPQ
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